Bank litigators under fire

JAKARTA (JP): More members of the House of Representatives and bank analyst have joined the fray of criticisms against Indonesian bank creditors, who seemingly distrust the country's commercial court and prefer settling business disputes at the court in Singapore.

Abu Hasan Sazili of the Golkar faction who is vice chairman of Commission I (law and defense) lambasted at creditor plaintiffs who do business in the country but do not have any trust in its judicial system.

Another House member, Jhon Manafe of the Commission VIII (finance) concurred, saying that creditors such as the Bank Bali group should not a priori discard the country's commercial court as unreliable.

They were commenting to Antara on the civil law suit filed recently by Bali International Finance, a unit of Bank Bali in Jakarta, at the high court in Singapore, against PT Surya Supratama Finance and Bambang Sutrisno, a former shareholder of the now defunct Bank Surya.

Sutrisno guaranteed a syndicated loan to PT Surya Supratama Finance in 1997 which was lead managed by Bali International. The litigation was triggered by Surya Supratama's failure to repay the loan on maturity.

Jhon said this was the second law suit filed by the Bank Bali group at the Singapore court against its Indonesian debtors.

Bank analyst I Nyoman Moena agreed that Indonesian creditors and debtors should bring up their disputes to the Jakarta commercial court but he also asked the judges running the court to make self-introspection as to why many creditors prefer the judicial system in Singapore.